Riverside's Leadership (Elder) Covenant

Below is the Leadership Covenant that we developed for Riverside Christian Church.  Very little is original.  It's a collection from many different sources.  It was a long time coming, but I think it will definitely improve the leadership at our church through them knowing their expectations.  "Leader" is synonymous with "Elder" at Riverside.


RIVERSIDE CHRISTIAN CHURCH'S LEADER COVENANT


GROWING IN PERSONAL DISCIPLESHIP

• Develops a real, authentic relationship with God through a daily time of prayer and Bible study.
• Regularly attends the weekly worship gathering at least 39 times every year.
  
• Models the life of Jesus in his daily life and shares the gospel regularly.
  
• Ministers to their own families.
  
• Tithes to the ministry at Riverside.

CARING FOR THE CONGREGATION

• Mentors people in the congregation.
• Participates in the leadership calling program so that everyone in the church is contacted once a month.
• Visits people who are homebound or hospitalized.
  
• Discipline members who are out of step with the congregation or straying morally in their personal lives.

LEADING THE CHURCH IN ITS MISSION

• Agrees with and actively supports Riverside's vision to love one another, love Jesus, and love all.
  
• Agrees with Riverside's Statement of Beliefs and Statement of Convictions.
  
• Participates in leadership meetings that serve as the primary forum to discuss and give input on key policy and strategic decisions.
• Leads the congregation in discerning what God is calling the congregation to be and do.
• Helps the congregation stay focused on its mission.
  
• Leads the congregation through change in order to be more effective in its mission.
  
• Actively participates in mission and outreach ministries according to their gifts and available time.
  
• Teaches in different capacities throughout the church.

SUPPORTING AND ENCOURAGING ONE ANOTHER

• Attends leader's meeting when scheduled for training, sharing, and prayer.
• Goes on the annual leadership retreat for spiritual renewal and team building.
  
• Prays daily for the other leaders, the minister(s), and ministry heads.
  
• Involved in a weekly accountability relationship with another leader in the church.

FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• Serves in reviewing monthly financial statements
  
• Approves yearly budget
  
• Approves individual expenses over $5,000.

ROLE TO THE LEAD PASTOR, STAFF, AND MINISTRY TEAM LEADERS

• Serves under the lead pastor and receives training and guidance from him.
  
• Holds the lead pastor accountable.
  
• Supports the lead pastor in holding all other ministry team leaders accountable. It is not the responsibility of the leaders to discipline ministry leaders for their mistakes, pitfalls, or perceived failures in ministry. Ministry leaders are under the lead pastor and answerable to him.
  
• Encourages all of the people actively involved in ministry in the church.
  
• Serves as the primary transitional team overseeing the process of replacing the lead pastor should the need arise.
  

I, _______________________________________, am willing to serve as an active member of Riverside's Leadership Team per the requirements and responsibilities outlined above. I understand that this is a one-year commitment and I can be removed at any time through the decision of the other leaders. I will invest at least ten hours into my spiritual growth and the church every week.

_{___________________________________                            __________}

^{Signature                                                                                                  Date}

Just a Building, Not the Church

Today’s article is more of a Riverside church update. I hope you enjoy and are challenged.

This last week, I heard that a family didn’t visit our church when they were looking for a church because they believed that we would not be here in the future. They thought, “Why invest in a church that will just close up?”

Then in another conversation I had this week, someone mentioned that they thought our church was going under. 

So I want to emphasize in this article that “We’re still here. We still care. And we still have a mission.”

I think these thoughts all stem back to when we put our building up for sale. Notice that I didn’t say “church” up for sale. At that time we were in financial dire straits. This led to us listing the building on the market. When we did that, I emphasized that the building is for sale, not the church. I posted an article online explaining that. I wrote an article for this paper doing the same. And I preached it. Our church, if the building sold, was not leaving Antwerp. We would have been moving into town and had a budget for a few years to be a fully-funded church, allowing us to do many of the ministries we have a passion for but currently lack the funding for. Things that would help us fulfill our mission as a church.

For many, being a church without a permanent building is apparently a tough thing to grasp. Some apparently think that the building is the church. But I know of many churches that have prospered and thrived renting out a place to worship. Rick Warren’s church (Rick of Purpose-Driven Life fame) had 10,000 people attending the church he pastors at before building a building. They were a church without a building.

Rick wrote, “I'm often asked, `How big can a church grow without a building?' The answer is, `I don't know!' Saddleback met for 15 years and grew to 10,000 attenders without their own building, so I know it's possible to grow to at least 10,000! A building, or lack of a building, should never be allowed to become a barrier to a wave of growth. People are far more important than property” (Purpose Driven Church, 46).

Others have probably heard wrong information through the Antwerp gossip vine concerning Riverside. Maybe they heard that we were closing up or some other news instead of just selling our building. In this article, I hope to set the record straight.

For us, listing our building for sale reminded us that the building is not the church. The building never has been the church. The building never will be the church. Understanding that is a good fundamental to build off of. We, the people, are the church. Our relationships with one another and Jesus make a church, not the building. When we meet in the park, we’re the church. If we meet in another building, we would still be the church. When we meet for a Bible study at my house, we’re the church. We, the people, are the church. And if we don’t have good relationships with one another and Jesus, yet have a building, we are not the church. The building, although a useful tool at times, is irrelevant to being the church. 

If the day comes when it would be better for us to sell the building, we would not hesitate to sell it. We would gladly and eagerly sell the building to further God’s church. Now those two sentences would be confusing if you don’t differentiate between the building and the church, but that is only due to a wrong understanding of what the church is.

And we get that wrong understanding honestly. We’re ingrained from birth with a wrong understanding of the building. “Here is the church, Here is the steeple, Open the doors, See all the people. “

But the truth is better  expressed in a revised rhyme that I found, “Here is a building, On top there’s a steeple, Open the doors, The church is the people!”

Anyway, I want to emphasize today that “We’re still here. We still care. And we still have a mission.” So if anyone asks how Riverside is doing, let them know that. “We’re still here. We still care. And we still have a mission.” We’re not going anywhere. Thankfully, things are a little better financially right now than the tough times we faced at the turn of the year. God’s unending and unexplainable provision is awe-inspiring. Our building is now off the market. We have even hired a part-time children’s pastor. And we are growing and actively ministering to our community. We are moving in the direction that God wants us to move in as we continue to seek ways to minister to the community with our limited budget.

May we always remember that people are more important than any tool used in ministry, even the building.

The Building is For Sale; Not the Church

Because of circumstances (the public listing, people inquiring, and some controversy at a local diner), I have decided to release this letter for public consumption. There have been a few changes since this was writtn. First, we are not broke as our projections forecasted we would be at this time because of a generous $2000 gift given to Riverside after the writing of this letter. And the outside support did not come through.

**

The title says it all. We are looking at selling the building; however, the church is not for sale.

What that means is that we believe the church is the people.

Together, we are the church. Whether we worship in the park as we have before or whether we have to find a new, permanent location to meet at, we, people with friendships with one another under the lordship of Jesus, will still be the church. Nothing can change that unless we get too discouraged.

The reason we are looking at selling the building is that we lack sufficient operating revenue. We have been blessed with an outside donor who has been giving us $2000 a month for the last two years. He heard about the changes we were doing and wanted to support us as he would a new church plant, which we basically were. When the leadership of the church decided to hire me and to bring about changes, we faced all of the hardships of being an old, established church while facing all the obstacles of being a new church without the funding that a new church has. In December we saw the donations from our generous donor drop to $1500. That amount will continue to drop by $250 per month every quarter until our generous donor is no longer financially supporting our church. Our current shortfall is around $1500. With the incremental decreasing that we will see in the coming year and a half, our shortfall will eventually reach around $3000 a month.

As you can see, the amount of money that we’re taking in does not cover the expenses that we have. This means that we have to do something drastic. Our church is heading in the right direction. People are growing in the Lord. People are excited about loving their neighbors. And we are growing in numbers. We want to keep going. We believe the work that God has started here is not over yet. We are excited to see what God will do through us.

We have cut expenses to the bare bones. The people in our church are giving generously, yet we still do not have enough to make ends meet. We must grow in people who are emotionally, financially, and spiritually committed to our mission so that we can meet the budget needs that we currently have and will have in the future. At this point in time, we are faced with some difficult options: To close up the church completely, to lay me off and go without a pastor, or to sell the building. We don’t want to close up shop because we believe that God is doing great things among us and through us. This church has previously tried stretches without a paid pastor, and it is our opinion that during those stretches the fruit has been lacking. We see no reason to believe that by laying me off our church will prosper, and that is the most important thing here. Not to mention that I still feel called to minister in Antwerp. Considering all of that, we’ve decided that at the present time the best option out of all the bad options is to put the building up for sale.

Receiving miraculous financial support would be great. Even with more outside support to help us through the coming year, we will be in a similar situation at the end of next year. We are thankful to hear that another organization, who asked us to keep their name anonymous, wants to support us with $1500 a month for a year. This has not officially gone through yet, but it looks promising. What this means is that we don’t have to close up or lay me off in mid February like we feared we would. But it does not get us out of this crisis. It gives us some breathing room to allow God to do what He wants to do.

We must reach a point where we’re financially self-sufficient if we are going to continue to minister to and have an impact on the community of Antwerp. We don’t want to always be on the receiving end of help; we want to reach a point where we can have a local, national, and international impact for the kingdom of God. If we can sell the building, the revenue received from that sale will give us some operating cash to function for around two to three years. As we grow and the financial giving increases, the length of our survivability increases. We hope to reach a point where we will be receiving more money through offerings than we have going out through ministries. At that point we can look at owning a building again, but the key is to be a self-sufficient church before making that decision. A building, although a great and useful tool, is not necessary to be a thriving and community-impacting church. The key to be a thriving church is for all of us to be surrendered to the Lord’s will for our lives.

It is a shame to have to sell the building. A lot of people have donated generously through the years with their time and money to make this building what it is. Unfortunately, those blessings from the past cannot help us at this point in time to get us where we need to go. Financially, selling the building is a terrible long-term solution, but it is the best short-term one available to us. However, God might have better long-term plans for us in selling the building and meeting in a different location. His ways are not our ways. And just because we list the building does not mean that it will sell.

The great thing about being followers of a wonderful God is that we know He can turn what we perceive as bad situations into great, life-changing events. We can be better as a result of this change than we were before it. This might even be what God wants for us. He knows what we need and what our community needs better than we do.

So I want to encourage you to not be discouraged by the circumstances. That’s easier said than done. I spent a few weeks deeply discouraged about our financial situation and the future of this church, but God continues to convict me that what I perceive as a bad situation will actually bring him glory. Paul wrote, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6 ESV). That promise was true for the Philippians and it is true for us today. I know that God has been doing great things here in Antwerp as a result of our faithfulness to him. Let us not give up hope. Let us not be discouraged. Let us continue on in our mission to love Jesus, to love each other, to love our neighbors, and to expect God to bring about positive change. The building is for sale, but the church will continue on in the work we have been called to do. Where he will have us worshipping him in a year’s time does not really matter. What matters is whether we are committed to worshipping and serving him together.

Grace and peace,
Regan Clem
Pastor at Riverside Christian Church

**

If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments below.

My brief foray into the Nazarene Church and Reflection on the Changes at Riverside Christian Church

Someone wrote me an email about my time as a Nazarene, whether that was influencing me, and mentioned that some of the people who had left the Antwerp Church of Christ, before it became Riverside Christian Church, accused me of teaching things that are "way out there."  This was my reply.

I left the Nazarene Church because I was not Nazarene in the least bit.  Never was.  We never became members there.  I wanted to leave a month in, but Lindsay wanted to stick it out. I just tried to minister to the best of my ability through the opportunities given to me while we were there.  I realized through observing the inner workings of the Nazarene denomination that I could not minster there without compromising my conviction that we should not adamantly condemn things that the Scriptures appear to allow. 

I left in a peaceful way, not making any stink, and still remain friends with Scott Marsee and Tom Travis (it was sadly funny to hear the stories from the people that hated me and left the Antwerp Church of Christ on how I caused trouble and left the Nazarene church and the youth ministry I ministered at in Michigan).  Honestly, it was over the Nazarene teachings on drinking, the Holy Spirit, and salvation.  I would not say that people who speak in tongues should be excluded from the church or ministry positions because the Bible does not say that (see this thread on Naznet for a discussion of the Nazarene view on tongues as a prayer language and their response to it).  There are biblical rules to speaking in tongues as a prayer language and those should be adhered to.  I could not say that drinking was wrong because Jesus was a drinker and Paul recommended drinking (from the Doctrinal and Ethical Positions of the Church of the Nazarene 34.5. "we call our people to total abstinence from all intoxicants.").  I understand that there is discussion within the Nazarene church to change this, but the stance of the church at the present time is not one that I can agree with.  And I do not believe people are saved with a prayer and raising their hand because salvation is found by grace through faith when we surrender our whole heart to the Lord.  This will result in us dying to ourselves, becoming Jesus' disciples, and doing His will.  Not that the Nazarenes don't believe that, but the practice of raising one's hand drove me bonkers, probably more bonkers than it warranted.  These were just a few examples of teachings, albeit well-intentioned, that seemed to spring from some source other than Scripture, which drove me nuts week in and week out.  I am required to teach what I understand the Bible to teach, whether that goes against a teaching of the church or, as in the case at the Antwerp Church of Christ, the traditions of men.         

I'm not anti-denominational though.  Just non-denominational.  Bob Russell, the retired pastor at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY, gave a great sermon at the men's meeting at Lake James on this just the other month.  At some point in the 1950s, some in the Church of Christ (especially those in this area) started focusing on the things that divide rather than just going after the mission of Christ in the world around us.  We started thinking we were right because of our doctrines rather than loving like Jesus and making disciples.  If there are copies of that sermon floating around, it would be a great one to listen to.  I'm willing to work with denominations where we have common ground, to build relationships, and to learn from them as I hope they learn from me through our relationships.    

And my teachings are "way out there" to some, but I think they are in line with the Bible and the Churches of Christ/Christian Churches throughout the rest of the country.  It was not my desire to do what I did at this church and hurt people's feelings and "take" their church from them.  I was just following Christ; I honestly believe He wanted to transform the church and bring it back to life.  The changes just started steamrolling as the leadership changed one thing after another knowing that we needed to change if we wanted to exist in ten years.  The changes took place much faster than I had planned, but I do believe God was in control.  I can see now that if we took my slower plan with a focus on educating the changes through, we would have had just as many headaches and lost as many people.  These losses would have occurred without the resultant growth we have seen.  Slow changing would have probably killed the church; fast changing nearly did.  I remember sending emails and making phone calls to my Church of Christ professors and friends in the ministry asking if I should be pursuing the changes we were making and teaching the things I was teaching because the struggle we were facing was something I had never experienced.  I was beginning to question whether I belonged in the Church of Christ, although I did not know where I would wind up if I did not.  But they encouraged me and told me to keep going after what God had called me to.  I know now that I rest firmly in the Restoration Movement and that there are like-minded churches in this area, but I did not have the relationships with them at that time.

I hope that the core of my teaching is what Jesus had at the core of his teaching, "Loving God and loving our neighbors."  It is our mission to be a community of people in real, authentic relationships with one another, to be passionate about Jesus and His work, and to love people in practical ways.  By doing that, we hope that God will transform people and add to our community.  This vision is a combination of the thoughts in Acts 2:42 and Matthew 22:37-40.  If people don't get that from what I teach, then I have not done a good job.  If my teachings aren't "way out there" to a dead church who should have the life of Christ exuding from them, then I am not doing my job. 

Just this last week, I taught a sermon that would have infuriated some of those who left on the Lord's Supper in which I touched on how it is not commanded to be done weekly (although they try to use bad Bible study methods on Acts 20:7 to make it say that), but that we choose to do it weekly because we want Jesus' death on the cross and the forgiveness and unity we have as a result of that to be central to our gathering.  The only sin associated with taking the Lord's Supper in Scripture is the sin of taking it in an unworthy manner, not discerning Christ's body, the church, when taking it.  The Lord's Supper is not something we should divide over, think it makes us better than others because of the frequency or way we do it, nor is it something that we take on Sunday and forget; it should be something that spurs us on toward living the life of love that Jesus wants us to live throughout the rest of the week.

Our church's beliefs and convictions can be found at our church's website.

How We Know If We Love God

In a recent conversation, I was asked, "How would you measure whether someone is growing in the Lord?"

Religion would say that we measure it by church attendance, financial giving, bible study, and prayer.  Those might provide us with concrete methods of measurement, but if we use them as our criteria, even the Pharisees would have a dynamic spiritual life.  We're called to something much more significant than just a few religious rituals.

The true rule of measurement should be Jesus' teachings.  To him, the greatest commandments were summed up in two:  Love of God and love of neighbors.  Loving God is pretty intangible; it's not something we can see.  We can't measure it by how often, loud, or passionately someone sings songs of praise.  We can't measure it by how frequently someone attends services at a church.  My knowledge of Scripture is no evidence of my love for God.  All of the typical measurements that we like to fall back on do not really tell us if we are growing spiritually.

The Apostle John explained how we love God.  He said that if we claim to love God but do not love the people around us, then we are lying (1 John 4:19-21).  Our love of God is shown in only one legitimate way, and that is by loving people.  If our love for our neighbors does not increase, then we are not loving God.

Unfortunately, we often make the mistake in thinking that loving people is telling them the truth.  That's not the case.  We need to be prepared to let them know the truth when they ask about our love, but we love whether or not we get an opportunity to preach the message with words. 

Our vision at Riverside is to be a real, authentic community in Christ, have a passion for Jesus and His work, and to love people around us in tangible ways. It is our hope that through doing this, people’s lives will be transformed and God will add to our number.  It culminates in us loving God.  If our life together and our passion for Jesus do not lead to us loving people, then all of the religion is meaningless.

The measurement of spiritual growth is not measured in how excited we are, in how knowledgeable we are, in how devoted we are, or any other religious criteria; it's measured in whether our love for others is increasing.   Are we spending more time now loving our neighbors, co-workers, and friends?  Are we looking for opportunities to share God's love by helping meet people's physical needs throughout the day?  Are we encouraging others?  Those are the true measurements of spiritual growth.